Family Vacation.....Sort of

We haven't had a real vacation in a year.  Of course, that was a month in Hawaii- sort of the ultimate vacation, I know.  So Spence and I were so excited to take the last week of August and go to Florida.  We invited his family, and it all worked out that his parents, Daniel, Suzy & Jim were all able to join us.  We even got the same house we've stayed in before.....what a treat.  

Parker actually traveled really well!

Then there was Isaac.  Hurricane Isaac that is.  We knew the week before our trip that it was predicted to come up the gulf.  Then it looked like 

it would hit directly where we were staying.  But we had faith that we would be fine.  So we drove 8 hours anyway with Parker to our destination.  Beautiful weather, everyone made it.  House set up, beach gear ready, and kitchen full of a week's worth of groceries.  Daily, the storm looked to start heading more and more west towards New Orleans.  Then after less than 48 hours, the area had a mandatory evacuation of non-residents.  Even our rental company called to kick us out.  Boo.

on the beach with Honey

Spence and I were determined not to go back home.  So the 8 of us went to Birmingham for the night and stayed at a nice resort.  The guys got one more golf day in and we all parted ways.  We ended up spontaneously crashing in Atlanta with my awesome family for a couple of days.  All in all, we had almost a week away, out of the house, away from the hospital, and fun time off together.  Maybe next year, right?

the sand sculptor

We did fit a lot of fun in though- check it out!  On our one full day at the beach, we had a professional sand sculptor come and teach us how to make a real sand castle!

we got in 2 decent beach days

Rick, our professional sand castle architect

building our castle

Suzy and Jim watching the castle construction

our finished product- it got so much attention on the beach!

Parker loved the water

Daniel and Jim

Spence and Parker on the beach

Daniel, Suzy and Jim

Waking up and playing with our cousin Jim

Playtime inside 

out to eat at the Fish House

story time before bed

golf in the wind and rain of Isaac

Wish we had many more days of this.....

at the pool in Birmingham- unfortunately the rain followed us here too 

Honey and her babies before we went home